2022 Board Member Candidate
Nathan Wilbanks, FSA 2012, MAAA 2011
Milliman
Direct, Sales and Marketing
Chicago, IL
Election Message:
Let’s improve the SOA’s global competitive position by removing barriers to entry to becoming an actuary. We can start by removing the examination fees for the preliminary exams. This will encourage more diverse talent to consider the actuarial profession and pursue it through the SOA. Career switchers, underserved communities, international students, and many others could all be positively impacted by this change. Removing this small barrier could greatly increase the pipeline of new talent joining our community and aid us in meeting the future talent needs of our constituents. I appreciate your support!
Brief description of current work:
I am working together with a team of actuaries, data scientists, software developers, and other technology professionals to build a new product practice at Milliman focused on bringing data and analytics to the entire life and annuity value chain. This includes research on how individual customer data can predict policyholder behavior, mortality, purchasing decisions, etc. and the influences both distributors and agents have. I lead Sales & Marketing for this group where I focus on understanding current and prospective client challenges and opportunities to help inform our strategy and shape our products.
Primary Area(s) of Practice:
Life
Bio:
I was a pre-med student when I started college. I quickly realized I liked the idea of being a doctor more than I wanted to be one. I switched to math because it was always my favorite subject. One of my professors mentioned the actuarial profession in a probability course during my sophomore year. After doing some additional research, I learned that being an actuary was one of the top jobs in the U.S. More importantly, I could stick with my math major because actuaries had to take various math exams. I took and passed my first actuarial exam at the end of my junior year of college and started my first actuarial job at Allianz Life in the Twin Cities after graduating the following year.
I’ve worked for several carriers since then including Aviva, Sammons, and Nationwide. Most of my career has been focused on life and annuity product development. I’ve been fortunate at all of those companies to have had leaders who helped me grow my skills and learn to communicate effectively. I progressed gradually from focusing on technical aspects of the work, like model development, to a strategic focus on how we should position our value proposition to the customer.
Working on strategy inspires me. It’s why I am now working at Milliman as a part of a team trying to build a new product practice focused on data and analytics. It’s also why I am running for a position on the SOA Board of Directors. It is a never ending opportunity to learn because the environment we live and work is always changing.